I tend to look at it from David Brin's transparency point of view. Privacy's pretty much dead, and the only way to avoid some kind of police state scenario is for everyone to have access to the surveillance tools, instead of just the authorities. People would have to become a lot less judgmental about what others do in public, too.

Matt:

An offense is the only defense.

I hope it doesn't come to this, but you could be right.

If we have EMP countermeasures to eliminate the invasion threat, does it really help anyone? Those with the most to hide will have the (probably expensive) defenses, and the rest of us will be powerless to escape the ever watchful eye of ... everyone or anyone or no one, but it won't matter because we would never know. Privacy is dead? Is that because it has been bred out of us? Are we just so complacent that we no longer demand our rights?